Food Products

When consumed, food represents a substance that gives the body the necessary nutritional support. Food contains essential nutrients like proteins, minerals, fats, and vitamins, and it can originate from animals or plants.In order to provide energy and maintain life, as well as to stimulate growth, food is ingested and, through blood, the energy is delivered to cells.

Throughout the history, humans have obtained food in 3 ways: hunting, gathering in the nature, and through agriculture. In the modern society, most of the required food energy is being delivered to the world population by the food industry, in the form of food products.

The security and safety of the food products are monitored by institutions like the International Food Information Council, Food and Agriculture Organization, World Resources Institute, World Food Program, and International Association for Food Protection.They are in charge of controlling problems that affect the access to food, biological diversity, sustainability, nutritional economics, climate change, water supply, and population growth.

The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights have established “The right to food” as an important human right, more precisely, all people have the"right to an adequate standard of living, including adequate food," as well as the "fundamental right to be free from hunger.". Unfortunately, these rights are not respected in many countries.

For thousands of years, most of the food has been provided thanks to the development of agriculture. In the modern age of mankind, the sustainable agricultural practices trend is growing, due to the increasing concern for the products and methods of modern industrial agriculture. Thanks to the ever growing consumer demand, this approach has encouraged organic farming methods, biodiversity, and local self-reliance. Food production is mostly influenced by international organizations, national government laws, and unfortunately, wars.

Nowadays, the mass production of food has become infamous, especially chicken and beef meat products. After Food, Inc, released documentaries regarding the mass slaughter and poor treatment of animals, for a bigger profit of the big corporations, the public has turned to environmentalism,and people in Western culture are more and more using herbal supplements, food products for a specific group of people, functional food products such as omega-3 eggs and fortified food products.

Recently, a few organizations have started practicing a new kind of agriculture, where the Agraecosystems provide food, but they likewise support vital ecosystem services, in order to maintain the biodiversity and soil fertility.These kinds of Agraecosystems mainly provide food, fiber as well as animal products, but they likewise offer flood mitigation, erosion control, groundwater recharge, and habitats for plants and animals.

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